1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to a system for performing trade finance operations and, more particularly, a system that allows centralized processing for a globally distributed trade finance business.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventional trade finance processing, such as the processing for an individual letter of credit, is generally performed at one processing site starting with the receipt a document/message, such as, an application or payment document and concluding with the sending of the resulting outgoing documents/messages. Initiating documents may have been received by the processing site via fax or a stand alone imaging system, but processing in the trade finance system starts once they have been received. Almost all large banks with a global presence have multiple processing sites for many geographically diverse locations, each processing trade finance instruments according to its local market demands and practices. This typically results in a collection of processing systems implemented in their domestic Back Office and the various foreign branches with little or no integration between them. At the other extreme, a few banks have consolidated all of their processing in one (or a few) location(s), using stand alone imaging, fax, couriers or other means to transport documents to and from the customer business sites to the processing sites. The systems implemented to support these processing centers attempt to achieve economies of scale but fail to fully integrate the end-to-end process that starts when the document/message reaches the bank, rather than the processing center. A typical example of such a system is the TradeLine™ system available from American Management Systems of Virginia. What is needed is a system that inherently operates in a global technical architecture. One that captures the end-to-end process and allows the bank to optimally the configure its global customer service and processing organizations. One that permits the bank to locate the processing centers wherever they want (for instance, at a low cost site), without sacrificing the local customer service at the customer site or special customer or local processing practices.